Philippine SEC Plans Binance Ban, Cautions Unregistered Exchanges

Kelvin Lee, the head of the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission, clarified in a panel discussion on December 13 that a ban on Binance would be enforced three months after the release of the advisory.

According to a report from the local news outlet BitPinas, Lee stated that there has been a great deal of misinformation on the internet regarding the ban. This comes after officials issued an alert to the cryptocurrency exchange on November 28 for operating without a license.

Officials requested further clarification on the topic, and he stated that the prohibition was “supposed to be three months from the issuance date,” which he claimed was on November 29.

“Depending on how feedback is, we can actually extend that, but currently, we should feel lucky with the three months.”

Despite the fact that the first proposal was for one month, or perhaps a “one-week transition period,” he ultimately opted to go with a longer amount of time because of the Christmas holiday.

During that period of time, he instructed, “Not to make things difficult for Filipino investors.” Lee stated that, in addition to Binance, two other exchanges that were recently issued with an advisory for unregistered operations, namely OctaFX and MiTrade, are also potentially subject to bans after a period of three months.

The local SEC stated that it possesses a substantial list of unregistered exchanges that will eventually come into existence. Additionally, the SEC plans to adopt a “wait-and-see” approach to determine if the exchanges will register following the action taken against Binance.

“At the end of the day, it’s about registration. At the end of the day, it’s about consumer protection. Work with the registered entities.”

The report stated that Lee faced criticism for banning Binance because it is “cheaper” than other registered exchanges. “It is obvious that they are more affordable due to the fact that they have never bothered to register in the Philippines and have never bothered to comply,” he stated.

In contrast to the registered entities, there are, of course, charges associated with compliance. His advice to local investors was to “invest in registered entities,” and he mentioned that there are presently seventeen virtual asset service providers registered in the country that provide services that convert fiat currency to cryptocurrency.